DOOM on Xbox live arcade

One word.. Sweet.

I feel like a teenager again. Oh, to be a teenager again, with what I know now......

XBox 360 enhancement request

Yes, it's true. The XBox 360 needs an enhancement, and rather quickly. I'll explain why.
The previous post talks about the MOOR in TDU. Well, there are some issues with it, along with other games, such as NFS. I believe the problem lies in the small amount of RAM and the slow DVD drive.
I'm sure everyone who has played these games notices the issue. It's the hiccup that occurs every once in a while when the next portion of the maps get loaded. I think what is happening is that there is memory swap going on and the game hiccups when this occurs.
I'm guessing that there is only a certain amount of addressable space allowed for games. There definately is a bunch for the core 360 OS, otherwise how would you network, stream music, show live status, etc. that is in use already.
Plus, now games have this wonderful graphics cards to use, so they will be using that to the fullest to create beautiful graphic intensive games.
Given the core system memory and the highly developed games, there needs to be more addressable memory space for the games.
If the maps are preloading into memory to alleviate some of the issues, then there needs to be more memory to really get rid of hiccups. Even with the GDDR3 RAM, you are still limited by the slow 12X DVD player.
So, there are a couple of things that can happen: Add more RAM, which may mean longer load times for games, or speed up the DVD player, which can load the bits faster to RAM, OR do both.
Or Microsoft can tweak the OS based on these games to help the loads. This will most likely be the case.

TDU

Test Drive Unlimited is out for XBox 360 and it is a load of fun. At first, I wasn't going to get this game because of the demo. Thought it was pretty lame, didn't understand it. But then, Atari did the right consumer choice: Made TDU the cheapest non-arcade game for the 360 with the ability to buy add-ons later. So, TDU becomes an evolutionary product. Brilliant!!

So far, I'm having a lot of fun with this game. The idea of MOOR is unreal. (massively open online racing) You can see other people racing, challenge them at any time.

The map is huge!! Who would have thought Oahu was that big! One thing to keep in mind is that you cannot use this as your guide to Oahu. There are some parts they got correct, but for the most part, it's just a map.

The car lineup is fantastic, from Saturn's to Saleens. Plus downloadable cars every so often.

The missions are fun with delivering packages within a time limit, transporting people within a certain time limit, and delivering cars with no time limit. The cars are tough because in oder to get perfect, you can't crash, go off the road, etc. But you get a huge bonus for perfect. Beyond the thousands of miles of road are countless thousands of miles of terrain you can go through. It's been fun exploring this also.

The graphics are sweet: When you are over the satellite GPS, you can see cars on the highways moving, waves moving, trees blowing, etc. However, I really don't think it is fully next-gen graphics, even in HD. (Another blog entry later about this).

Also, I don't know how realistic the sounds are. I've played Forza with surround sound and the cars in TDU do not sound like the cars in Forza. For those who don't know, the Forza people whent and actually recorded every single car they use in the game. They also paid some people some good cash to record the vintage cars.

But as far as game play, this is a fun game! This is really next gen gaming.

Is it without problems? No. Some issues:

1. TDU servers are overloaded. As with EA, I don't think Atari realized the popularity of this game. Right now, you cannot sell cars online, can't create clubs, etc. which is what makes this game NextGen. They should have this fixed soon.
2. The TDU servers are not fully aware. Killer is in Chicago and I am in Phoenix. It takes about 2 minutes for the TDU servers to be aware that we are looking to play together, or see each other online. From the GPS, we can see each other, but when you go back to live, we cannot.

This is really a fun game. I'm fully addicted to it with the exploration format and missions. Out of all the 360 games and Xbox games I own, this is one game that I have a hard time putting down.